Elitekeyboards

[Rafen]

Why does it seem like Elitekeyboards.com has really fallen off with customer service and the way that company is run? Shipping costs have gone up so it takes longer for a board to reach me from california. I think its crazy that its going to take almost 2 weeks for me to get the board when I live in Ohio. I could have got the board if I would have paid over $30 shipping. Does anyone else think this is ridiculous?

I just shipped a golf club sold on eBay from Ohio to California using USPS. The cost was $12.82 and only took 3 days to get there. I will never order another product from them. I am also half tempted on sending this one back once I receive it and ordering from another company.

[mkawa]

brian's a good guy, and if you contact him directly you will get fantastic customer service. more likely i think their customer base and volume has grown a little faster than he'd prepared for. give him a chance, and i think he'll impress you give a little time

[AKIMbO]

2 weeks?! It's only taken 1 week tops from California to my address in South Florida...and that's with 3 separate orders within the past month. My only gripe with EK is that it takes them 3 days to ship an order.

[Lukasevic]

If you think those times are bad, don't EVER buy anything from tankguys...

[Rafen]

Yeah I have heard tankguys are horrible when it comes to that. I found out it is taking forever because of the delays due to fires in the midwest. So I guess that's why its going to take forever to get to me.

[demik]

I just shipped a golf club sold on eBay from Ohio to California using USPS. The cost was $12.82 and only took 3 days to get there. I will never order another product from them. I am also half tempted on sending this one back once I receive it and ordering from another company.

that's just dumb. just keep it and not order from them again if it's bothering you that much.

[fossala]

I just shipped a golf club sold on eBay from Ohio to California using USPS. The cost was $12.82 and only took 3 days to get there. I will never order another product from them. I am also half tempted on sending this one back once I receive it and ordering from another company.

that's just dumb. just keep it and not order from them again if it's bothering you that much.

It's not dumb, give your money to a company that doesn't rip you off on postage.

[demik]

I just shipped a golf club sold on eBay from Ohio to California using USPS. The cost was $12.82 and only took 3 days to get there. I will never order another product from them. I am also half tempted on sending this one back once I receive it and ordering from another company.

that's just dumb. just keep it and not order from them again if it's bothering you that much.

It's not dumb, give your money to a company that doesn't rip you off on postage.

so, returning it and waiting MORE time isn't dumb?

i get the idea why he would. but he can simply vote with his wallet by not giving them his business after this.

[fossala]

I would prefer to wait and give my money to a better company (I don't dislike EK, the one time I ordered from them they reduced my postage). The silly thing he did do was pay for it, then moan.

[brian]

Hi Rafen,

2 weeks does sound ridiculous. I don't see any orders going to OH in the last month and a half that have taken more than a week, though I may be mistaken, so I'm happy to address any issues you have had. PM me or send an email to support@elitekeyboards.com.

Please understand that we try to use FedEx for as many shipments as we can since they give us excellent control of packages after they've left our warehouse and on the average they inflict less damage to packages than USPS or UPS (in our experience). USPS is faster to the Midwest and East coast for the same price, but they are horrible when it comes to accounting for packages while in transit. If FedEx doesn't suit you, we can offer other shipping methods, as is stated in our support FAQ.

As for your generalization about customer service and how the company is run "falling off;" could you be more specific? Customer service is crucial to EK's business, and I'd like to think our customer service is the best it's ever been, but we're constantly looking for ways to improve, so if it's not up to your standards, please let me know.

And while I'm here...I'm more than happy to listen to the advice of anyone else here who finds our business practices lacking; some names here (I won't be specific) I see pop up repeatedly on a few different discussion forums who seem to like to get their kicks in whenever another customer vents about the rare EK shipping flub; as if they harbor a grudge. I hope these people can understand that it doesn't make me feel good to see people who have such a penchant. It almost feels personal; like they want to see me fail. It makes me wonder If I've irreconcilably wronged these people; which is never my intention. I started EK with hopes of not doing things like everyone else, I didn't want to lie to anyone about gold plated connectors, or obscure the actual cost of shipping because I like honesty and transparency as a consumer myself. So if I can do better, please let me know. If something doesn't make sense, I'm *very* open to having an open discussion about it.

Brian
EliteKeyboards

[kalrykh]

Haters gonna hate

[dirge]

You respond quickly to emails and shipping to the UK was fast, no problems from me

[GH1391401]

Ey bro get dat dere new Leopold 700 and we square aight

[thegunner100]

Lower prices on Topre sets and get topre to fix their red dyes please!

[002]

fix their red dyes please!

I'm curious to know what you're referring to there. Is it that the ABS spacebar colour doesn't match the colour of the PBT keys?

[thegunner100]

No, I'd like for topre to fix their red dyes that they used for their proto type "red-alert" set. According to Brian, the red dyesubs don't look red in person when he went to check them out.

[fruktstund]

I'll also borrow this thread a bit when people are already at it and ask you politely if there isn't any cheaper way to ship items to Europe? I've been very interested in the pink Topre keycap set for a while, especially since you lowered the price of the non-printed ones, but I just don't feel paying a shipping cost at $50 is worth it.

Probably people have asked this about a billion times already, but it'd still be nice to get an answer from the person in charge to avoid any unneeded confusion.

[002]

No, I'd like for topre to fix their red dyes that they used for their proto type "red-alert" set. According to Brian, the red dyesubs don't look red in person when he went to check them out.

Oh cool I didn't even know that this happened.
Was this recently as a result of the Red Alert interest check I was running or before-hand?
Strange that they messed the red dye up - it looks pretty good on their Realforce keychains.

[demik]

according to brian, it's more magenta than red.

[002]

Where/When did he say this?
I know what he means about the magenta colour because it kinda looks like that on the Fujitsu Axess

[demik]

it was on GH, not sure if it's still there tho

and with the site being slow, it's going to be a pain to look for.

[thegunner100]

I think it was mentioned inside the topre red alert interest check thread.

[therecorder]

Brian...

Why should anyone outside of the USA buy from EliteKeyboards when, in your FAQ, you state:

"Please note that currently our Terms of Warranty Service do not apply for customers outside of the USA and Canada. Shipping internationally is done as a courtesy only and no warranty is available outside of the US and Canada. All products are tested before they are shipped and any issues related to DOA (Dead On Arrival) products will be dealt with on a case by case basis."

I might be willing to pay $50+ for postage on a $300 Keyboard, but I'm not willing to chance that, after some weeks or months, that keyboard dies, and I've lost $350+.

[002]

Ah ok - thanks. I guess the post might have been deleted in a rollback?

[demik]

im trying to look for it, but GH keeps timing out.

[002]

<snip>

I think the most important thing to remember is the 'case by case basis' thing.
The reality from my experience (and other Aussie friends) is that Brian still does a fantastic job correcting mistakes for international buyers.

I agree that the warning should probably be revised a bit to instil a little more confidence though.

[megnin]

Customer service is crucial to EK's business, and I'd like to think our customer service is the best it's ever been, but we're constantly looking for ways to improve...

I just wanted to throw out that I've exchanged a number of emails with Brian lately concerning a keyboard issue and I've been quite happy with his/EKs level of service and support. Brian has kept me informed and to tell the truth gone above and beyond in trying to resolve the issue.

[cactux]

[Account and posts deleted on request]

[brian]

Lower prices on Topre sets and get topre to fix their red dyes please!

I think I mentioned something about this in a GH thread. When I asked Topre to do this, they weren't too confident it could be done; and if it could it could only be done once. I thought it odd at first, but my guess is that their supplier isn't doing any mixing, they have a set number of colors; perhaps they just deal left to right and Topre feels they'd end up doing the mixing (with no skill in the art) themselves. Blue and green look promising though, so that may still happen without any coercion.

[brian]

I'll also borrow this thread a bit when people are already at it and ask you politely if there isn't any cheaper way to ship items to Europe? I've been very interested in the pink Topre keycap set for a while, especially since you lowered the price of the non-printed ones, but I just don't feel paying a shipping cost at $50 is worth it.

Probably people have asked this about a billion times already, but it'd still be nice to get an answer from the person in charge to avoid any unneeded confusion.

I've answered this before on GH a few times over the years:)

There really isn't a cheap AND secure way to ship overseas. For example; we can ship an 87U to Europe with USPS Express Mail Service for right around $50, or with USPS Priority Service for right around $39, but if we ship with Priority, it not only takes longer to get their, but no one is responsible for it, so we need to add $3.50 insurance onto that $39. Now it's $42.50, and the delivery is still slower and less secure than EMS.

For $7.50. So...I don't see the point in offering Priority service.

First Class mail would be even cheaper (and slower), but there is a 1.8kg (4lb) limit on this service, and pretty much all of our boards with the exception of the HHKB, tip 1.8kg when packed. So it's not really viable, and I wouldn't ship an HHKB with First Class mail.

We have recently started offering FedEx Air to Canada, and will be offering this for more countries shortly. We get rates to most Western European countries and Asia that are right around the same as EMS, and a bit cheaper for anything tenkeyless-size or smaller, so I might have some good news for you soon on shipping Topre keycaps, but don't expect half price shipping. I'm not a miracle worker;) Anyways, the great thing about FedEx service is that it's very accountable (when they make dumb mistakes they pay up very quickly) and they deliver in days, not weeks like USPS EMS or Priority very often does.

BTW, the reason we can get these new lower international rates with FedEx is because we are loyal to them. We could not do so if we took a shopping-around approach to this trying to save our customers $5 here or there on shipping; i.e. we used DHL to mainland Europe, UPS to Asia, FedEx to Canada, etc. Our volume with each carrier would be lower, so the base rates would end up higher; prices would be the same. So while I'll entertain other options, we'll most likely be sticking to what we have for a while.